"The Fourth Noble Truth: Suffering As A Resource" by Reginald Ray

In explaining the power of meditation, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche makes the interesting observation that as long as we feel we can escape from the present situation, we won't notice very much about it. Only when we feel that "this is it," and that there is no escape will our perceptions, our feelings, and our intelligence really come alive.

In the case of suffering, as long as we feel that there is some fundamental way out, we will not see what it actually is or notice its possibilities. When we become sensitive and aware enough to see that there really is no way out and we surrender to that fact, then we can begin to make some interesting discoveries. We see first that our resistance has been based on our expectations about ourselves and our lives. We see that our ego ideal--our image of who we should or could be, and what life could or should be--is not as solid or necessary as we thought. We see that all of this is our own self-maintained drama and we see its ultimate nonexistence. And in that moment, we let go.

In doing so, we discover, with some amazement, that we do not just cease to be, as we had so greatly feared. Instead, we have crossed over some threshold and entered into a different kind of existence. We find ourselves softer, fuller, more complete. Suddenly, we are no longer in a hostile and threatening environment where we are constantly fighting for our lives, our safety, our dignity, and our nourishment. Our fear is gone and we find, at that moment, that the universe is a place of blessing.

Tenzin Palmo, an English woman who was in retreat in a tiny cave high up in the mountains of Ladakh for many years, shows what this kind of realization can mean. One May, when the undersoil had ceased to be frozen, it was raining and the entire inside of her cave, including her bedding and her clothes, was soaking wet. In this environment, her health was poor and seemed to be going downhill. She found herself yearning to feel better and became quite depressed. She reports:

Then I thought, "But didn't the Buddha say something about duhkha [Sanskrit: suffering] in samsara? Why are you still looking for happiness in samsara?" and my mind just changed round. It was like, "That's right. Samsara is duhkha. It's OK that it's raining. It's OK that I'm sick because that's the nature of samsara. There's nothing to worry about. If it goes well that's nice. If it doesn't go well that's also nice. It doesn't make any difference." Although it sounds quite elementary, at the time it was quite a breakthrough. Since then I have honestly never really cared about external circumstances. In that way the cave was a great teaching.

With this understanding, we can make sense of the Buddha's injunction in the fourth noble truth not only to realize the inevitability of our suffering, but to make use of it. We see that by risking everything, by taking our suffering seriously, by looking at it and contemplating it, by entering our awareness into it and experiencing it fully, some fundamental, surprising, even shocking transformation can occur.

This, of course, is hardly a one-shot deal. It certainly does not mean we have become fully enlightened. But it does open up for us a new kind of relationship to our suffering. We begin to see that it is an essential, powerful resource in our lives. We understand its appearance still as a threat--of course, how could it not be?--but a threat that is also an opportunity. In fact, the deeper the threat, the more opportunity we dare to find in it. When suffering arises, we can look at it, experience it and surrender to it, with dignity and confidence, and let it work its magic. We know it holds something for us. Here is where meditation comes in, because it provides the tools to bring this about. We sit and open, resisting the temptation to run away, coming back to our suffering moment after moment.

Interestingly, this kind of approach does not lessen the impact of suffering. In a way, it frees us to face and experience our pain in a much fuller and more direct way. But we have confidence in that process and repeatedly find genuine transformation in it. For this reason, duhkha is called the "first noble truth." It is the truth that is primary and ever-deepening, that continually gives birth to wisdom.

In the Vimalakirti Sutra, the Buddha makes the comment that we, as human beings, have been given suffering so that we can have a spiritual path. Without it, we would be forever caught in the "self," our image of ourselves, a straitjacket of our own making. Suffering is the Buddha's greatest gift, so the text says, because it continually frees us from small and limited selves and makes possible the unending journey toward our own totality.

“What Would Buddha Do?” by Gary Gach: If wisdom can be symbolized by the head, and meditation by the heart, then we see ethics as pertaining to the body: refining our instinctual nature. The Buddhist invitation is thus to live with body, heart, and head as one; to fully keep our appointment with life.